Rabbinic legend tells of a man named Honi who drew a circle on the ground and refused to move from it until the Lord answered his prayer for rain.

“Lord of the universe, I swear before Your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon Your children.” (12)

After praying a couple more times (to regulate the flow of the water, of course), the land was watered, the people were saved from drought, and Honi became a legend.

In Circle Maker, Mark Batterson uses Honi’s example to teach us to pray metaphorical circles around our problems and requests. Be stubborn and “pray through.” Don’t stop ‘till you get enough. (Okay, that last one was Michael Jackson, but you get the point.)

This book is essentially a testimony of the repeated financial miracles that have happened to Batterson as he planted and grew National Community Church in Washington, DC. There are other stories thrown in, but most of the personal anecdotes are about how God provided the funds to get the job done.

Here’s my issue with Circle Maker. After repeated chapters about financial provision, he throws in a few cautions: what you ask for has to be God’s will and God is not a vending machine. The problem is that his overarching narrative portrays God as a vending machine and offers very little to suggest how to discern God’s will. This book is 95 percent motivational stories that walk the edge of the prosperity gospel with 5 percent warning readers that this is most certainly not the prosperity gospel.

There are other problems such as his misunderstanding of fasting. Batterson refers to fasting as a technique to supercharge your prayer ROI:

When you fast and pray in tandem, it’s almost like a moving sidewalk that gets you to your desired destination in half the time. Fasting has a way of fast-tracking our prayers. (165)

You might have been put-off by my crass ROI metaphor. That’s another issue. Batterson constantly uses consumer and sports metaphors to refer to God and prayer. In referring to his times of fasting he states: “I was two for seven the last time. I’m five for seven this time. And these seven miracles are bigger than the last seven miracles” (167).

Circle Maker is good motivational speaking but poor theological reflection.

Batterson, Mark. The Circle Maker: Praying Circles around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. Expanded ed. Zondervan, 2016.